Anil Kapoor and actress Kalki Koechlin unveiled the new numbers for P&G Shiksha

Corporate Social Responsibility /Education

Anil Kapoor and Kalki Koechlin join consumers to pledge their support to P&G Shiksha and celebrate the impact of building and supporting 450 schools across India

by Shrutee K / DNS

Mumbai, 25^th June 2015: After completing 11 years, P&G’s flagship Corporate Social Responsibility program, continues to march forward with the motto ‘Padegha India, Badhega India’. P&G Shiksha has made all the necessary infrastructure interventions by building and supporting schools across the country, giving underprivileged children access to quality education. Renowned Bollywood icon Anil Kapoor and actress Kalki Koechlin unveiled the new impact numbers for P&G Shiksha wherein till date, P&G Shiksha has built and supported more than 450 schools which will impact the lives of 8,00,000 children through educational interventions right from Leh to Kanyakumari .

To celebrate this path breaking impact, renowned actress Kalki Koechlin and extremely versatile and respected actor Anil Kapoor visited a mall in the city to show their support towards P&G Shiksha. The day long activity included Kalki and Anil interacting with students of P&G Shiksha schools as well as the consumers and together they pledged to continue making the simple brand choice of choosing P&G products so that they can continue to make a difference to many more lives in the future.  The consumers interacted with P&G Shiksha kids and witnessed the impact their simple brand choices have made in their lives. The enthusiastic kids interacted with Anil and Kalki and asked them questions related to their school lives. The students were also extremely excited as they got an opportunity to learn a lesson in acting from the talented Kalki and a couple of Yoga aasans from the very health conscious and fit Anil Kapoor.

For more than a decade now, P&G Shiksha focussed its attention on driving infrastructural interventions by building and supporting schools across the country to enable children with access to quality education. In addition P&G Shiksha has been instrumental in this change by equipping schools with necessary amenities from building classrooms to toilets, providing clean drinking water to setting up playgrounds, thereby significantly reducing the school dropout rate and improving the overall literacy rate in each state.

Pledging his support towards P&G’s Shiksha, Actor Anil Kapoor said, “I’m glad to be given this wonderful opportunity to support the cause of education by building and supporting schools that is driven by P&G Shiksha. It is great to see that over the last 11 years, 450 schools have been built with over 8,00,000 children impacted. Interacting with such bright minds from the P&G Shiksha schools has been a wonderful and humbling experience.  Education plays a very important role in a child’s life and helps moulding them into successful individuals. I have three children and as parents we understand the importance of providing good quality education to them which helps them in making decisions independently in the future.  Thus, I urge each and every one of you to take the ‘Pledge for Shiksha’ by making the simple brand choice of buying P&G products and part of the proceeds will go towards building and supporting schools, so that each and every child can gain access to their basic right, which is education.”

Speaking on the occasion Kalki Koechlin said “I have been associated with P&G Shiksha in the past and it is great to be back once again. As a consumer I have been contributing to P&G Shiksha for many years through simple brand choices. Moreover, it is great to see the tremendous increase in the number of schools that P&G Shiksha has built and supported and the number of lives they have impacted through this noble initiative. It has always been a pleasure to be associated with P&G Shiksha and it is s a wonderful experience interacting with the bright young minds of tomorrow. Education plays a very important role in securing an individual’s future and P&G Shiksha has been successful in securing the future of more than 8,00,000 children. This is an outstanding achievement and to continue this I urge you all to take the ‘Pledge for Shiksha’.”

Supporting this endeavour, this year, many celebrities from different walks of life like Irrfan Khan, Aditi Rao Hydari, Koel Mallick, Taapsee Pannu and Rahul Dravid also visited P&G Shiksha Schools across the nation to contribute to the cause by teaching young minds and interacting with them. They also shared their vision of empowering under privileged children with access to education, and together with P&GShiksha urged consumers to make the simple brand choice and join the program’s drive by purchasing P&G products such as Tide, Ariel, Whisper, Pampers, Olay, Head &Shoulders, Pantene, Vicks, Gillette, Oral-B & AmbiPur. These purchases enable the company to channelize part of the sales proceeds towards building and supporting schools across the country.

One of the most noteworthy initiatives undertaken this year were in Delhi, where due to P&G Shiksha’s intervention of building a new floor in the school resulted in the number of enrolments to increase by almost double. Similarly at the P&G Shiksha School in Kolkata, P&G Shiksha made a breakthrough intervention of constructing a computer lab for the students with a vision to promote technologically advanced learning.

Apart from these, there have been many other different kinds of interventions like building new classrooms at the P&G Shiksha school in Chennai and encouraging girl child education in Hyderabad by providing the school with cleaner and hygienic toilets that P&G Shiksha has undertaken. These interventions supported by P&G Shiksha aid the minds of under-privileged children by encouraging them to fulfil their dreams by receiving an education in a healthy and safer environment.

P&G Shiksha has over the years received generous support from many thought leaders and celebrities such as Anupam Kher, Dr. Kiran Bedi, Anil Kumble, Rani Mukherjee, John Abraham, Abhay Deol, Farah Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sameera Reddy, Huma Qureshi, Sushmita Sen, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Sharmila Tagore, Konkona Sen, Neha Dhupia, Soha Ali Khan, Lara Dutta, Preity Zinta, Jacqueline Fernandez, Jatin Das, Shaan, Chitrangada Singh, Soha Ali Khan,  Shruti Hassan, Pankaj Advani and many more.

P&G Shiksha also allows consumers to share in their support. This can be easily done by buying any P&G Product such as Tide, Ariel, Whisper, Pampers, Olay, Head &Shoulders, Pantene, Vicks, Gillette, Oral-B & AmbiPur and part of the proceeds will go towards building and supporting schools. Consumers can also visit P&G Shiksha’s online partner – Amazon.in (www.amazon.in/pgshiksha) to buy P&G products & support this cause.

With a motto of ‘Padhega India, Badhega India’ - P&G Shiksha believes that the secret to a brighter India lies in the quality of education of our children. With a stronger focus to drive this message throughout the country it will continue its journey to make schooling a reality to all.

About P&G Shiksha:

Launched in 2004, P&G India’s flagship CSR program P&G Shiksha has grown immensely, with the help of strong support from consumers. Till date, P&G Shiksha has built and supported over 450 schools that will impact the lives of over 8,00,000 children by helping them gain access to education. P&G in association with NGO partners like Round Table India (RTI), Save the Children (STC) and many more works towards building new schools, providing critical infrastructural amenities at existing schools or reviving non-operational government schools.Become part of the conversation on www.facebook.com/pgshiksha or #PGShiksha